Housing complex at Perama

Design Project: Varelidi Louiza, Zioga Evgenia
Professor: Dragonas Panos
Department of Architecture, University of Patras
November 2009

Data

The project concerns the development of an urban housing complex on a disused industrial site, located at the periphery of the town of Perama, near a slum neighbourhood at the far end of the harbour of Piraeus; the slums were constructed by rural immigrants during the 60s and 80s on trespassed public land and legalized in the 90s when most of them developed into small houses. The area is today characterized by unregulated and arbitrary constructions and poor living quality, but transcends a unique feeling of variety in facades, materials, colours and outdoor spaces, due to its "spontaneous" architecture and siting of buildings.

The main goal is to design a new urban environment containing both private housing and public uses, incorporating the distinctive identity of the surrounding neighbourhood and the industrial character of the wider area, so that it functions as an extension of the existing settlement and not as an "intrusion" in an already established urban landscape. After extensive research and personal contact with the local inhabitants, the basic principles of design were formed:

Principles

-The old petrol tanks that exist in the project site are preserved and reused as public spaces.
-The proposed public services cover the needs for social, cultural, entertainment and educational facilities
-The proposed dwellings are low-budget, but maintain a high quality in materials, functionality and design.
-The typology of dwellings is based on the demographic characteristics of the town of Perama.
-The relationship between private and public spaces reflects and enhances the strong sense of neighbourhood that is typical in the area.
-The layout of the open spaces is based on a network of meeting points and communication spots.
-A mix of three type of materials are used: coloured aluminum, wood and concrete plates to achieve a colourful result that reflects its 
 industrial surrounding.
-The topography of the site is kept so that all the dwellings have a view over the sea.

Design

The system of dwellings is organized along a number of horizontal axes defining two types of movement-routes:

a. linear access routes for fast pedestrian movement that serve as service roads as well (hard limit of housing rows)

b. a fluid route with an extrovert and social character that takes different shapes among the front gardens of the dwellings, creating a chain of semi-public open spaces with a neighbourhood feeling (soft limit of housing rows).

A dual quality of urban environment is created providing two different definitions of urban outdoor space. Along the linear route the houses are "closed in" by tall walls with small openings giving a strict definition of private space. Along the fluid, extrovert route the dwellings open up to the public or semi-public spaces in front of them achieving a fusion of the private and public space through large openings and low fences in their front gardens.  Every block of residences functions as a whole, as a small-scale neighbourhood where every inhabitant can communicate and interact with both their neighbours and the passers-by.